Typhoon Bopha packed winds of up to 100 mph when it struck Tuesday, bringing torrential rains that flattened entire villages and left thousands homeless.

The deaths were concentrated in the Compostela Valley, a mountainous gold mining area, and the neighboring province of Davao Oriental, on the eastern coast of the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, Lt. Col. Lyndon Paniza, a military spokesman, said by phone late Wednesday.

Most of the dead appeared to have drowned or been hit by falling trees or flying debris, officials said.

“There is debris in the road, so our soldiers are moving by foot,” Paniza said. “They are crossing rivers and landslides. I don't want to speculate, but we don't know what they will find when they reach those cut-off areas.”

Three soldiers are known to have died, and eight are missing, he said. Several soldiers died when a landslide washed out their patrol base, and others disappeared while on search-and-rescue operations.

Local television crews broadcast grisly footage of mud-covered bodies being loaded into trucks in villages that appeared flattened by the storm. In some areas, not a single structure could be seen standing.

In areas where roads were washed out, the government dispatched seagoing vessels to bring relief goods from the provincial capital of Mati to remote coastal areas.

“I have thus authorized the local government of Mati, its mayor and the provincial governor, to use their calamity funds to hire all available large, local fishing boats for an immediate sea-lift transfer of goods to the affected areas,” Manuel Roxas, the interior secretary, said in a statement.

The eastern coast of Mindanao, which was the area hardest hit by the storm, is a remote, impoverished agricultural area. Roxas told reporters Wednesday that during his visit to the area, he had seen tens of thousands of coconut trees downed and many acres of destroyed banana plantations.